Customized content delivery

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for creating a sample of electronic content for transmission to others. For example, a user may select a portion of an electronic content file to be transmitted as an excerpt file to another user. In some instances, transmission may be prohibited based on various criteria.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 60/848,166, filed Sep. 29, 2006, entitled “Methods and Apparatus ForTargeted Content Delivery.”

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the delivery of electroniccontent, more specifically, to the targeted delivery of electroniccontent over a network.

BACKGROUND

The proliferation and considerable growth of the Internet and World WideWeb have opened new avenues of content delivery to consumers.Information delivery applications, such as web browsers, have advancedthrough the years with increasing capabilities and opportunities totransmit and share electronic data. First generation web browsersdisplayed simple hypertext linked to another file containing additionaltext. Over time, these browsers have been replaced by moresophisticated, dynamic applications that enable content providers andusers alike to interact with each other over a network through theimplementation of text, graphics, audio, video and many combinationsthereof.

One of the greatest advancements of the Internet and computer networkshas revolved around development of encoded audio and video files, suchas MP3s. Audio and video content may now be digitally encoded into filesand transmitted across one or more networks. Such digital encoding andcompression techniques allow a great amount of content to be packagedinto a single file, thereby making content more portable.

Spoken-word content has become an increasingly popular means ofentertainment. Users may browse and purchase audio-based content overthe Internet to download to a portable device. For example, an audiobookor other spoken word audio content may be purchased through an onlinewebsite and downloaded to a computer or portable media device. A usermay then listen to the content subject to any restrictions imposed bythe content provider, such as time, re-playing or other restrictions.

Portable media devices such as MP3 players and Apple's iPod° havepermeated modern society for use, not only for entertainment purposes,but also for many business applications. These devices are no longerlimited to simply playing a user's encoded music files, but instead havebecome an invaluable means by which regularly updated information, suchas electronic news feeds or other updatable content, are provided to andconsumed by an end user.

One emerging technology which provides access to electronic content isthe distribution of multimedia files through content feeds using theReally Simple Syndication (“RSS”) standard. Content providers maypublish a web feed on a hosting site or application. A user wishing to“subscribe” to the content can register or activate a reader, such as aspecial-purpose application or browser, which will present the user withupdated or new content.

Content providers periodically update the information or materialsposted on a server or website, and the reader will update what ispresented to the user via links to the information. Examples of websites or readers include personalized web pages from Google or Yahoo!Inc.'s My Yahoo!. When a user subscribes to a particular feed, thereader will poll the server on which the content is stored, looking forupdates. If an update is located, the reader will post, or update, thepage presented to the user.

The field of content feeds with downloadable content, sometimes referredto as “podcasts,” has become a popular method of sharing andtransmitting updated media to a variety of users through RSS feeds. Acreator of a podcast, which is generally a downloadable audio or videofile, such as an MP3 or MP4 file, simply records and encodes his or hercontent and posts the podcast to a server or other site which may postthe podcast for its users to download. A content provider provides acontent feed which users can subscribe to using client applications,such as Apple's iTunes®. A user may download and then transfer thosepodcasts to a portable media device in order to listen to or watch thepodcast at a later time, away from the computer.

Traditional podcasting involves a user's subscribing to a feed byregistering the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) of the feed with aclient application, or podcatcher software. The user's personal computer(or other computing device) connects over a network to retrieve the feedURL from the content provider's server through the podcatcher software.The server then returns an RSS-compliant extensible markup language(“XML”) package to the computing device. The computing device extractsan enclosure URL, which has the location of the content, from the XMLpackage. The computing device then retrieves the content file located atthe enclosure URL. The computing device then imports, or stores, thecontent file either on its own storage media, or at another designatedlocation such as a portable media device or player. Typically thepodcatcher software periodically polls the server to download updatedRSS feeds, whereby the process is then repeated at some interval.

The content provider may require users to register each device in orderto facilitate delivery of content. The device, usually a computingdevice or mobile device player, is registered through a connection tothe content provider's servers in which some identifying aspect of thedevice is stored by the content provider. These identifiers may includehardware serial numbers, device names, device types, etc. Requiring theregistration of a device may allow the content provider to maintaincontrol over the content it distributes, such as by preventingunauthorized playback if a device is not registered.

Current methods for subscribing to a podcast, however, are inefficient.A user must register the URL of each feed separately at each destinationdevice or system. For instance, if a user desires to have a particularfeed sent to his or her portable media player, home computer and workcomputer, then the process of registering the feed with a clientapplication must be repeated for each device. This is inconvenient andinefficient for the user.

SUMMARY

Methods and apparatus for customized targeted content delivery viacontent feeds are provided. Embodiments of the present invention includemethods of delivering targeted and individualized electronic contentover a network. The content delivered through certain content feeds maybe specifically tailored to a specific user based on numerous criteriaincluding, but not limited to, attributes of the user (such as gender,age, income, location), usage characteristics, subject matter ofprevious downloads, subscription details, and targeted advertising. Inone embodiment, the content provider is able to track and monitor thedownload characteristics of individual users and adapt the contentdelivered in the feeds.

In one embodiment, a method of delivering targeted electronic contentover a network includes providing a subscription to a content feed to auser. The location of the feed includes an identifier associated withthe user. A content provider's server may use this identifier to locateand create a customized content feed. A request for the content feedlocation is received and XML data stored at the feed location may betransmitted to a client computing device. An enclosure URL may then beextracted from the XML package. The enclosure URL contains an identifierassociated with the user or with a group of users and indicates thelocation of a content file. The identifier associates the user to thecustomized content file such that the customized content file containsthe targeted electronic content. The customized content file is thentransmitted to the user. In another embodiment, the content file may notcontain customized content, however the identifier included in the feedURL is utilized to track and monitor the download characteristics ofindividual users.

A system for delivering a customized content file to a playback device,the system including a remote computer which allows a user to registerwith a content provider and which creates a customized content feedbased on information received from user registration, the customizedcontent feed including one or more customized content files, wherein thecustomized content file is described by a customized content filespecification; wherein the remote computer allows the user to subscribeto the customized content feed and transmits a data package including anetwork location of the customized content feed to the playback devicesuch that the network location of the customized content feed may beextracted from the data package; and wherein when the playback devicerequests content from the customized content feed, the content providerprovides the customized content file specification to the playbackdevice, and a directory computer transmits locations of peer computingdevices to the playback device that have logical components specified inthe customized content file specification, such that the customizedcontent file is created from logical components provided by the peercomputing devices.

Other aspects of the invention are directed toward systems and methodsfor billing a content consumer based on content consumption, the systemincluding a remote computer that provides electronic content to aconsumer, wherein the remote computer is configured to track an amountof content actually consumed by the content consumer based on anindication of the consumed content provided to the remote computer, andcalculate a cost of content based on the indication of the consumedcontent.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed toward systems andmethods of creating a sample of an electronic content file fortransmission to others, the method including allowing a user to receiveone or more electronic content feeds, providing a playback device withan electronic content file from the one or more electronic contentfeeds, allowing the user to select a portion of the electronic contentfile for transmission to others, copying the selected portion of theelectronic content file to an excerpt file, and transmitting the excerptfile to another.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawingswhich are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which likereferences are intended to refer to like or corresponding parts, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a computer network in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting targeted content delivery in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 a is a sample XML source file of a content feed in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 b is a sample XML source file of a content feed in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 a is another sample XML source file of a content feed inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 b is another sample XML source file of a content feed inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps involved in thedynamic content pricing in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps involved inselecting and providing content excerpts in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 a is an illustrative diagram of a peer to peer computer networkin accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 b is an illustrative diagram of a BitTorrent peer to peercomputer network in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps involved inproviding customized content files in a peer to peer environment inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps involved inproviding customized content files in a BitTorrent peer to peerenvironment in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein,however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments aremerely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in variousforms. Therefore, specific functional details disclosed herein are notto be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims andas a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art tovariously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriatelydetailed embodiment.

An embodiment of a computer network constructed in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention is depicted in FIG. 1. In thisillustrative embodiment, a computing device 115 (such as a personalcomputer or other suitable computing device) communicates across network110 with a server 105. This may be accomplished using knowncommunication protocols such Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, Ethernet,streaming technologies, etc. Network 100 may be any suitable local areanetwork (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the Internet or any suitablecombination thereof. As shown, a portable media device 120 such as aPDA, cell phone, MP3 player or the like may be linked electronically tocomputing device 115 (e.g., through a hardwired connection such as a USBor Firewire link or wirelessly through a WiFi or cellular link). Deviceswhich require a host such as computing device 115 to access informationare referred to as “passive devices.” Alternatively, in someembodiments, portable media device 120 is capable of communicatingsubstantially directly with server 105, via either wired or wirelessnetwork connection. A device 120 having such a capability may bereferred to as an “active device.” Moreover, it will be understood thatany target device described herein such as computing device 115 andportable device 120 having a playback capability may be referred toherein as a “playback device.”

In operation, computing device 115 may include one or more interfaceapplications provided by a content service or third party softwarevendor that manages and/or coordinates the downloading, transmitting,and storage of electronic content delivered by server 105 (not shown).In certain embodiments, in which portable media device 120 connectsdirectly to server 105, the interface application may reside on thedevice itself. In other embodiments, such an interface application mayreside on server 105 and be distributed as required to a portable device120 (e.g., when the content is source specific or in a distributedapplication environment).

A user may initiate subscriptions to a variety of content sites throughthe interface application. Typically, a user will browse the availableofferings of the service in search of specific content in which the useris interested. This may involve searching the Internet or otherelectronic networks or databases. Once the user identifies and selectscertain content, a content request is initiated (such as asubscription). Once the user complies with any request requirements(e.g., identification verification, age verification, fee payment,etc.), the interface application connects to server 105 to download thedesired content in the form of an electronic file. As described furtherherein, the interface application may periodically poll server 105through the network 110 looking for updated or new content to which theuser has subscribed or requested. In other embodiments, updated or newcontent may be transmitted to device 120 as it becomes available or atpredefined intervals. For example, such content (or links to updatedcontent) may be sent to the user using a “push” technology over awireless network subject to memory limitations in device 120.

When new or updated content is available, the user may view or listen tothe content with computing device 115 (e.g., through Windows MediaPlayer) and/or may transfer the content to portable device 120, such asApple, Inc.'s iPod° or to any suitable other digital media player(generally depicted as device 120 in FIG. 1). The user may then view orlisten to the electronic content at his or her convenience. For example,if a user has subscribed to a spoken-word news feed which updates daily,the application may download the morning's current news and headlinescontent file to the computing device 115. If the user wishes to listento the news content while commuting to work or exercising, the usersimply synchronizes player 120 (through a wired or wirelesscommunication path), thereby transferring or copying the content filefrom computing device 115 to the portable media player 120. The nextday, the user may repeat the process with a new and updated news feedpublished by the content provider. Alternatively, such content may betransmitted substantially directly to devices 120 as it becomesavailable as described above (assuming device 120 is an active device).

Turning now to FIG. 2, a flow chart 200 is shown which depicts some ofthe steps involved in delivering targeted content according to anembodiment of the present invention. For example, an embodiment of thepresent invention may provide user-specific, or targeted, content basedon various criteria associated with an end user. Based on thisinformation, the content provider is able to tailor the contentdelivered to each individual user by creating a customized feed URL orother distribution path for delivery to the user.

For example, a user may subscribe to a certain feed offered by a contentprovider using a client application (step 205). This application, which,in some embodiments, may be a “podcatcher” application, may present theuser with a listing of feeds, or “podcasts,” available for subscriptionfrom one or more content providers. At step 205, the user may identifyhimself to the client application, which may in turn identify the userto one or more content providers (or provide such informationsubstantially directly to the content providers). Identification mayinclude a registration process through which the user provides certaininformation such as name, address, age, gender, preferences, the type ofdownload platform, etc. In response to this information, one or morecontent providers may customize content feeds to which the user maysubscribe. The feeds may include any category of content, such as,without limitation, news, business, technology, mystery, music, etc.Additionally, some embodiments of the present invention may includevarious media formats for the feeds, such as images, audio, video, text,etc. Customization may also take into account the capabilities of anyidentified platform and select customized content accordingly (e.g.,provide WAP content for basic wireless devices, only provide video fordevices with video playback capability, etc.). At step 207, the user maybrowse various customized feeds and select from among them.

Part of the subscription process may allow the user to set up aniterative request to one or more of the selected content feeds whichwill be individually customized for that user by the content provider.The user may subscribe to the customized feed or set up the iterativerequest through the interface of the client application (on eithercomputing device 115 or and active version of portable device 120). Thisinformation is communicated across network 110 to the content provider'sserver and requests a customized feed URL from the server (step 210).The content provider's server, which is generally represented as server105, may return a customized feed, such as a RSS feed, to computingdevice 115 or active device 120 (step 215). The customized feed maycontain a customized XML package that contains identifying informationabout the user.

In one embodiment, when the computing device 115 or device 120 receivesthe customized feed, the application extracts a customized enclosure URLfrom the XML (step 220).

The customized enclosure URL may detail the network location of theuser-specific content file. In some embodiments, the enclosure URLpoints to a server application that is invoked to deliver a fileaccording to certain policies that may customize the content to bedelivered, such as by inserting a targeted advertisement. In certainembodiments, the enclosure URL may point to a separate componentenabling the requested information to be provided from a server havingor most recently handled the requested information (e.g., a peer to peerarchitecture (discussed in more detail below)).

The application may then request the enclosure URL from server 105 (step225). Next, the remote computer may transmit the customized content fileto a playback device such as computing device 115 and/or portable device120 (step 230). At this point, the customized content file is, importedvia the application (step 235). The application interface will presentthe user with the content file. The user may save the content file tothe memory of computing device 115 or portable device 120.

The user may have a set of preferences stored in the application thatwill control and manage the content files downloaded from server 105.For example, a user may invoke a setting in which the application pollsand downloads any new or updated content files and automatically storesthe content files in a user-defined directory on devices 115 and/or 120.This may include a set preference to have the content filesautomatically transferred, or synchronized, to portable device 120immediately upon connection (through computing device 115 for passiveversions of device 120).

Some embodiments of the invention may use an HTTP protocol known in theart to send and receive data across network 110. The data, however,contains customized, user-specific data or content for each individualsubscriber. In one embodiment of the present invention, every user whosubscribes to a feed has a customized URL for the network location ofthe content to be delivered. For instance, if two users were tosubscribe to feeds for the same content, the URLs obtained by eachuser's application may be distinct. This may be accomplished, forexample, by using an identifier, such as the subscriber's name stored inthe URL, making the customized aspect of the feed apparent. Inalternative embodiments, the content provider may store the customizedcontent files through a system whereby each subscriber is assigned anumber or username, which may be associated with the content files. Sucha system preserves anonymity and privacy among the subscribers. When thecontent provider delivers the content files through server 105, it willlocate the content file specific to that user's assigned number orusername and transmit that particular file across the network to theuser's device.

The ability to provide user-specific content files in content feedspresents the content providers, as well as the subscribers, withnumerous benefits. For example, the content providers may monitor fromthe backend content distribution patterns and preferences of distinctusers or group of users. For example, by providing customized contentfeeds or customized content files, content providers are able to trackand control the number of distinct subscribers. The ability to identifythe number of downloads by a specific user allows the content providerto reallocate valuable network resources to other subscribers. Forinstance, identifying a single subscriber who has repeatedly downloadedthe same feed may allow the content provider to conserve the bandwidthof its network by limiting the number of permissible downloads over agiven time period, thereby eliminating or minimizing abusive downloadingpractices.

Moreover, the content provider may be able to predict the level offuture content requests based on previous request characteristics andstatistics. For example, if a content provider is posting a popular newsitem such as a summary of a sporting event or posting a new audio booksuch as Harry Potter, the content provider may, based on informationobtained from past similar experiences, allocate the resources necessaryto satisfy those enhanced requests without undue waiting or systembacklog and to prevent severe stress or failover on server 105. Trackingthe number of users seeking such information, the frequency of repeateddownloads, and the characteristics of those users may facilitate networkprovisioning and enable the content providers to further customize thecontent provided.

Additionally, in some embodiments, content providers may collectadditional types of user-data that will help further customize thecontent to an individual user. Examples of user-data that may beobtained include, but are not limited to, gender, age, location,category and genre preferences, type of content (e.g., episode of anaudio book, podcast, music download, news or financial market update,etc.), programming length preferences, frequency of updates, consumptionhabits, device platform and software, and other characteristics of theuser and the user's device. Analysis of such data allows the contentprovider to deliver targeted content to individual users. The customizedcontent files may contain individualized messages, such as targetedadvertising and promotional material, or other content based on consumerprofiles that may be generated using such information.

Other messages may be related to subscription information such asbilling information, personal information verification or update, asummary of services such as amount of information downloaded over agiven period of time, subscription expiration warnings or expiredsubscription notifications. For example, certain content providers mayrequire payment to receive content. The consumer may complete a separatetransaction that authorizes the delivery of content for a predeterminedperiod of time or number of episodes. Upon reaching the end of thepaid-for period, the user may still access and receive the feed, howeverthe “for-fee” content may be replaced by a message notifying the user ofthe expiration of the subscription or requesting renewal of thesubscription. The identification of the user and any subscriptionrestrictions allows the content provider to customize the content of thefeed as it is delivered to the user.

One embodiment of the present invention may include samples based oncontent of other subscriptions or similar content previously downloadedby that user. For example, if a subscriber had received feeds from acertain author, narrator, publisher, genre, etc., the content providermay include a small sample of other related content by the same author,narrator, publisher, genre, etc. In addition to similar content, thecontent provider may provide samples of new similar content, currentpromotional content, or even timely content related to current affairsor news on the subject matter.

An embodiment of the present invention may also allow a user to opt outof certain types of customized content. For example, if a subscriberdecides he or she no longer wishes to receive sample content with theregularly downloaded feed, the user may apply a setting in theapplication program notifying the content provider of his or herpreference or change thereof.

In certain embodiments, the content provider may offer distinct contentbased upon the preferences set by the subscriber. For example, thecontent provider may allow free or discounted subscriptions to itscontent feeds provided the subscriber allows the inclusion ofadvertising material. In such an implementation, the content providermay tailor targeted advertisements to the subscriber based on thesubject matter of the content. For example, a subscriber to a sportsnews feed would be targeted with sports related advertising in exchangefor a free subscription. Other examples include basing targetedadvertising on geographic location (which may be based on a “home”location or the current location of the user's playback device),promotions or sales currently available from the content provider orsales offered by the content provider's partners. Moreover, the contentprovider may allow the user to select the type of advertisements orpromotional materials he or she would like to receive.

Turning now to FIG. 3 a, an example of an XML source file 300 of acontent feed, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention,is shown. The XML source file 300 includes metadata related to thecontent feed in general as well as to data regarding the customizedcontent (sometimes referred to as an “item”). For example, metadata inthe XML file may include the title of the content or feed (field 305),the network location or address of the content page (field 310), ageneral description of the content (field 315), and the language inwhich the feed is presented (field 320). The metadata may also include acopyright notice (field 325), the title of the episode, chapter orcontent section (field 330), the specific location of the episode,chapter or content section (field 335), a general description of theepisode, chapter or content section (field 340) and the location of thecustomized content file, which may be an enclosure URL (field 345).

In some embodiments the title and location of the episode, chapter orcontent section may be unique. This is shown in FIG. 3 b, which issubstantially the same as FIG. 3 a with the exception of fields 332,337, 342 and 347, which are unique version of their counterparts, 330,335, 340 and 345 respectively, in FIG. 3 a. This may be desirable, forexample, in cases where a content provider provides customized productswhose constituent parts are chosen for a particular subscriber. Forexample, a content provider may offer a subscriber the ability to createhis or her own product, by choosing certain selections from otherproducts which may be combined into one product specified by the user(e.g., sports articles from a variety of different subscriptions). Theproduct name and description might then be unique for each subscriber'sproduct based on the subscriber's name, user name, password or networkaddress or combination thereof.

In one embodiment, the enclosure URLs 345 and 347 may include thelocation of the customized content file, as well as the length of thecontent and the type of content, i.e., audio, video, text, etc. Thefields described above may be updated regularly with new content files,locations, and descriptions, while other parts of the XML source file,outside the item, may be static.

In one embodiment of the present invention, multiple items may beincluded into a single XML source file. As shown in FIG. 4 a, an XMLsource file 400 may detail the information about the content generally,such as the title (field 405), URL of the content page (field 410),description of the content (field 415), language of the content (field420), or copyright or other notices (field 425).

As shown, XML source file 400 may also contain multiple items describingdistinct content files. In the illustrative example shown in FIG. 4 a, afirst item contains information regarding the first part of an episode(fields 430, 435, 440, and 445), as well as a second item havinginformation regarding a second part of an episode (fields 455, 460, 465,and 470). Such an embodiment allows the content provider to package theinformation of multiple content files into a single feed, instead ofhaving multiple feeds and multiple links that would require multiplerequests and download operations for each subscriber to obtain desiredcontent. This helps to improve downloading efficiency.

In some embodiments the title and location of the episode, chapter orcontent section may be unique. This is shown in FIG. 4 b, which issubstantially the same as FIG. 4 a with the exception of fields 432,437, 442, 447, 457, 462, 467, and 472 which are unique version of theircounterparts, 430, 435, 440, 445, 455, 460, 465 and 470 respectively, inFIG. 4 a. This may be desirable, for example, in cases where a contentprovider provides customized products whose constituent parts are chosenfor a particular subscriber. For example, a content provider may offer asubscriber the ability to create his or her own product, by choosingcertain selections from other products which may be combined into oneproduct specified by the user (e.g., sports articles from a variety ofdifferent subscriptions). The product name and description might then beunique for each subscriber's product based on the subscriber's name,user name, password or network address or combination thereof.

The ability to package multiple items in a single XML source file alsomay allow the content provider to include customized targeted content toindividual subscribers. For example, the first item may include thesubstantive content to which the user has subscribed. The second itemmay be individualized, targeted content determined by the contentprovider, such as subscription notices, advertising, related samplecontent, etc. Having separate content files and enclosure URLs enablesthe content provider to organize and distribute targeted contentefficiently, as the provider does not have to encode the substantivecontent with the targeted content into one content file for everyindividual subscriber. The implementation of multiple items in a singlefeed is substantially invisible to the subscriber as the applicationseamlessly plays each piece of content on computing device 115 orportable device 120.

In an alternative embodiment, multiple content files may be assembledusing dynamic file assembly techniques used by the content providers orbased on a request by the subscriber or client application for thesyndicated feed. In one embodiment of the present invention, contentfiles may be assembled from a series of blocks. The assembly parts mayinclude zero or more introductory parts, referred to herein as “intros”,one or more middle sections, and zero or more conclusion sections,referred to herein as “outros”. Each middle section may have one or moresub-sections, sub-sub-sections, etc. Middle sections and anysub-sections may include zero or more section intros, one or moreblocks, and zero or more section outros. The blocks may containadvertisements or actual content (i.e., the book audio). The blocks mayaccommodate any current or new type of content, such as audio, visual,textual, multimedia, etc.

In some embodiments, intro sections and outro sections may be omitted,so only middle sections are provided, or intro and middle sections areprovided but outro sections omitted, or middle and outro sectionsincluded, but intro sections omitted. This may be done for numerousreasons. One reason includes the case of retransmission where certainportions of the content are not properly received, and the server onlyretransmits the missing sections (which may include adjacent sections insome embodiments). Another situation includes the case where “jumbo”files are employed that span multiple transmission intervals (e.g., whenthe full file exceeds a certain threshold such as size, expectedtransmission time, a user preference, etc.). For example, during onetransmission interval, a file containing an intro and several middlesections may be transmitted. During a second transmission session,additional middle sections and outros may be included. The sections maybe associated with one another at the client side so that playbackoccurs in the appropriate order. In other cases, the user may havespecified that intros and outros be omitted so only the middle sectionsare transmitted, etc. An example of the structure of a file may berepresented as:

I1 (intro 1)

I2 (intro 2)

S1I1 (section 1 intro 1)

S1B1 (section 1 block 1)

S1B2 (section 1 block 2)

S2B1 (section 2 block 1)

S2O1 (section 2 outro 1)

O1 (outro 1)

One benefit of this file structure is that it allows the contentprovider to dynamically assemble a content file based on changingconditions and provides the flexibility to replace any section of thefile with another different section (e.g., such as advertisement,promotion, sample of new material, and updated version of that section,etc.) at the time of assembly. For example, as content is updated ormodified, a new or updated component may be included in the new assemblyof a file. For example, a new edition of an audio book may be providedby updating certain sections to reflect the changes from the olderversion. Other examples may include news updates, financial events orsports scores.

Moreover, embodiments utilizing this dynamic file assembly allow thecontent provider to supply each user with a customized content file.This may be accomplished by inserting certain additional segments (e.g.,based on the collected information described above) such as targetedadvertising or other customized segments into the data file to betransmitted to the consumer. Various criteria may be used to determinewhat replacement/insertions should used: e.g., user attributes, time ofday/week/month, location, running time, and user preferences (willing orunwilling listen to ads, etc.), and platform capability (provide onlycontent that may be played the recipient device or that is platform ofsoftware specific, etc.).

Yet another advantage of some embodiments of the present invention isthe ability to combine multiple subscriptions into a single contentfeed. As explained above, multiple items may be packaged into a singlefeed. Taking the example XML source file 400 of FIG. 4 a, the first itemin the feed, for example, may describe one of the user's subscriptionfeeds and the second item may describe a second subscription feed. Theenclosure URL of the first item may point to the content file of thefirst subscription, while the enclosure URL of the second item may pointto the second subscription. In one embodiment, a user may havesubscribed to multiple content feeds provided by the same contentprovider such as a sports news feed and a business news feed. The twofeeds may be combined as different items into a single feed.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the individual user mayassign which of his or her subscriptions are included in a single feed.Alternatively, the content provider may examine feeds which aretransmitted to the same user or group of users and determine which feedsshould be combined into a single user-specific feed. Such consolidationsmay be performed to increase the efficiency of the data transfer byreducing the use of network bandwidth or the loading on the server. Forexample, a feed may be consolidated from multiple servers to a singleserver or multiple physically distant servers may be replaced withservers in closer proximity with one another (and the user's location).

Such feeds may also be consolidated based on content. These types offeeds may include pre-packaged and pre-defined feeds offered as bundlesto the user. In yet another embodiment, multiple subscription feeds maybe combined, or bundled, based on certain criteria. For example, allsports feeds may be bundled together, all news feeds may be bundledtogether, and all music feeds may be bundled together. All feeds in acertain language may be bundled together. As with the other embodimentsdescribed herein, these bundles may be defined by the user or by thecontent service. Other examples of criteria that may be used in thebundling of multiple feeds may include, but are not limited to, length,genre, publisher, author, narrator, or content provider (i.e., outsidecontent), type of platform that is compatible, etc.

In one embodiment of the present invention, content feeds may be used todescribe non-subscription based content, such as audio books or otherone-time purchase content. A content feed may be dedicated tonon-subscription content such that each time a book is purchased, it isdelivered to the user via this feed. This embodiment providesalternatives to the traditional electronic audio book or “e-book”delivery methods.

While the embodiments described herein detail a customized feedcontaining targeted content for an identified user, one skilled in theart should recognize that the feed, the content, and the URLs in someembodiments may be entirely unique. In such embodiments, the contents ofthe XML compliant package may be encrypted to protect the content. Theencrypted portions of the feed, by nature of the encryption scheme andkey utilized, may be entirely unique. Embodiments of the presentinvention may be used to deliver confidential, secret or otherwisesecure content by making the feed subject to a unique encryption scheme.The secure feed may be delivered over a wide area network or local areanetwork, however only the user having the appropriate encryption keywill be able to decipher the feed. In one embodiment a feed containingcontent or data that needs to be secured is generated using thetechniques and methods described above. The feed may then be encryptedusing any effective method known in the art, thereby creating a uniquefeed for a specified and authorized user. Upon authentication of theuser's identity an encryption key may be applied to the unique feed toextract the secure content or data. Such systems may be advantageous forthe sharing of secure information by governments or corporations, andfor various commercial applications involving financial transactions,etc. One skilled in the art should recognize that the embodimentspresented herein are not limited to traditional podcasting environments.

Other aspects of the inventions allow for various dynamic pricing modelsof content, subscriptions or one-time purchase content. For example, acontent provider may offer a bundled feed at a reduced price to thesubscriber compared to the regular price if the subscriber were topurchase each piece of content described in the feed separately. Feesfor content may be reduced or waived if the user agrees to accept acertain level of advertising in the requested content. Because the feedsmay be unique to each individual subscriber, purchases and othertransactions may be completed over the network and tied to eachsubscriber's identity. Alternative embodiments also allow foruser-defined bundles at a reduced fee. For example, the subscriptionfees per feed may be reduced upon the purchase and bundling ofadditional feeds also offered by the content provider.

One embodiment may involve billing a user based on content actuallyconsumed. A flow chart 500 illustrating some of the steps involved inbilling a user based on consumed content is shown in FIG. 5. At theoutset, a user may request or subscribe to certain content through theapplication program described above in connection with FIG. 1. Theinitial request may involve providing certain user specific informationsuch as name, date of birth, social security number, address, phonenumber, etc. In other embodiments, less sensitive information such as anemail address or name may be all that is required. In some embodiments,the user may be charged prior to the delivery of the first installmentof content and billed based on consumption going forward. Or, in someembodiments, credit worthiness is assessed and the user charged later bythe content provider or a billing agent. For example, in the case wherea user is charged initially, and then billed to a credit account basedon consumption afterwards, credit or debit card information may beprovided (or another means of electronic payment such as PayPal). Theuser may be recursively charged on these accounts based on consumptiongoing forward. Other billing methods may include the use of anelectronic billing service such as Charge Me Later or Bill Me Later,which assess the user's credit worthiness based on information providedduring the initial subscription period. Such services assume theobligation to pay the content provider and bill the user.

At step 510, content may be transmitted to the user as described inconnection with the system of FIG. 1. The content provider may interfacewith the target device, such as computing device 115 or portable device120 (either directly or through computing device 115) and install orinitialize a counter that tracks the playback of the provided content(step 520). In some embodiments, where multiple content files areprovided, a dedicated counter may be provided for each content file suchthat each dedicated counter tracks the playback of the content file itis assigned to. This may be accomplished by providing a counter programwhich generates other instances of itself as needed. In otherembodiments, a single counter may monitor all files and mark startingand ending points at various time intervals and associate that data witheach content file to track usage. Such counters may be provided by thecontent provider or may be resident in the playback device. In eithercase, the content provider may perform certain verification routinesthrough verification or audit software to ensure the counter(s) are notaltered or otherwise tampered with and are associated with the correctcontent files. In some embodiments, such programs supplied by thecontent provider may be “secure programs” which can be accessed only bythe content provider or an agent of the content provider.

At step 530, when the user reconnects to the content source, theinformation from the counter programs may be supplied from the playbackdevice to the content provider or other billing module via the feed URL.In some embodiments, this may involve providing billing informationthrough a feed URL. This information may be used to calculate contentconsumption or may itself be the actual consumption information.

At step 540, the content provider may calculate and bill the consumerbased on actual use reflected in step 530. This may involve a flatcalculation based on the time of the playback or may vary depending onwhat content within the content provided was consumed (e.g., differentportions of the provided content may be billed at different rates,etc.). At step 550, the consumed content may be updated with freshcontent as described herein and the counter positions reinitializedand/or restarted to begin the counting process again (if necessary).

In some embodiments, at step 550, certain content may be refreshed evenif it hasn't yet been consumed (e.g., if it exceeds a certainthreshold). For example, a news program that is more than a certainnumbers of days old may be automatically updated even if it hasn't beenconsumed. Such a “drop dead date” may be specified by the user. On theother hand, certain content which is not time sensitive, such as achapter of an audio book, may remain until consumed or discarded asdirected by the user. In some embodiments, the delivery of certaincontent, such as a subsequent episode or section, may be withheld untilthe previous episode is consumed (e.g., in cases where the subsequentepisode or section depends on information in the previous one, etc.). Insome embodiments, billing may be based on content which is refreshed.For example, after the consumed content is determined at step 530, thesystem may proceed directly to step 550 and refresh content based onconsumption. In such embodiments, the content provided in the refreshstep is used as a basis for determining the bill (step 540).

Embodiments of the present invention may also include serializeddelivery for content of greater length, such as audio books. In theseembodiments the enclosure URL may contain additional parameter(s) beyondother more standard parameters such as the length and file typeparameters detailed in FIGS. 3 and 4. The additional parameter(s) mayinclude a parameter that corresponds to the playback duration of contentthe user wishes to receive.

For example, the enclosure URL for the content feed may contain aduration parameter that indicates the duration of the content to bedownloaded (e.g., a first hour, etc.). This parameter may be set by thecontent provider, specified by the user as a preference during aninitial request session, or be based on the resources of the devicereceiving the download (such as memory). Subsequent enclosure URLs maythen contain other duration parameters that indicate how much additionalcontent should be downloaded during each session. In one embodiment,each subsequent download may be the proximate or adjacent segment ofcontent, such as an episode, which may be of varying length, asspecified by the user or service. Alternatively, it may indicate thateach subsequent download makes available a segment of new content havinga preset duration. Such an implementation protects the content providerfrom abusive downloading and replication and preserves system resourcesby limiting the total number of downloads to approximately that requiredto receive a complete version of the requested content.

In yet another embodiment, serialized content delivery based onconsumption may be implemented through changes to the feed URL. In oneembodiment, a consumption parameter may be encoded in the feed URL toindicate a position in the content up to which the content has beenconsumed. Thus at step 530, if the user has only consumed fifteenminutes of the one hour of content previously downloaded, the feed willonly download an additional fifteen minutes to bring the total durationof unconsumed content back to one hour (at step 550). In these types ofembodiments, the feed URL is updated and changed each time theapplication requests additional content. This allows the contentprovider to track and monitor the amount and duration of downloadedcontent, as well as delivering the content at a rate associated with theuser's consumption. Tracking and noting this position allows the contentprovider to be aware of how much of the subscribed content has not beenconsumed. Marking the position for the user's next feed download allowsthe user to pick up where he or she last stopped the content, and allowsfor the protection of the content from abusive or replicateddownloading. This new “position parameter” may be conveyed to the serveror encoded into the feed URL. This may be used to adjust the address ofthe network location of the content so the immediately adjacent contentmay be subsequently downloaded (i.e., the network address may beadjusted accordingly and act as an index marker or bookmark into thecontent).

In an alternative embodiment, content providers may be able to providecontent for a fee based on other pricing models. While certainembodiments may be based on the duration of content consumed, orlistened to, other embodiments may be based on the duration of contentdelivered to the user (whether consumed or not).

In an embodiment in which pricing is based on the duration consumed, auser's consumption may be tracked. The balance due may be determinedafter the content has been consumed as described above. In streamingembodiments, consumption is measured based on the duration of contentstreamed from the server.

In embodiments where pricing is based on the duration of contentdelivered, the balance due may be determined upon delivery. The servicemay deliver sub-sets of the content as requested by the user (i.e.,first hour or first chapter).

Under these pricing models, the user may have substantially free accessto the complete library of the service. The user then may consume thecontent of the library on an “on-demand” basis and pay for the contentas it is consumed.

In certain embodiments of the present invention, the system is able todifferentiate between regular playback of content and mere navigationthrough the content by the user. For example, if a user fast forwards orskips through the sections of content, the counter would mark theskipped or fast forwarded sections and calculate the actual playbacktime exclusive of such navigation activity (e.g., at step 530).

Another aspect of the present invention provides systems and methodsthat allow users to share certain segments of content with others. Thus,for example, a person who received content may send a sample, such as anaudio or video clip of that content, to another for their review. In oneembodiment, the person receiving the sample would not be obligated topay for the content, nor would the sender be in violation of copyrightrestrictions. Further transmission of such a segment would be allowed.Such segments may include advertising or other promotional materialsassociated with them. The advertising and promotional portion may beplayed prior to or immediately after the sample. Such samples may besent on an untargeted basis, such as through email or other networktransfer protocol, even though the original complete title was targetedto the sender and otherwise not shareable.

In other embodiments, however, depending on the size of the sample orcopy restrictions in effect, the segment may be targeted, and thusrequire the receiver to register and/or pay before the segment can beconsumed and may or may not include promotional or advertising material.Such embodiments may also limit or prohibit the number ofretransmissions of the sample (through the use of copyright or otherrestriction software).

In certain embodiments of the invention, depending on the size of thefile or the copy restrictions in effect, the entire file may be providedto another party and be restricted to a limited number of playbacks orbe restricted to playback during a limited period of time. For example,if the work to be shared is a song or other relatively short audio orvideo piece, that work may be sent in its entirety to a limited numberof third parties for their consumption. This may be desirable in caseswhere content licensing permits such sharing.

A flow chart 600 illustrating some of the steps involved in selectingand providing an excerpt or sample of content is shown in FIG. 6. Atstep 610, a user may browse or otherwise consume certain content oncomputing device 115 or mobile device 120. Based on this review, theuser may notice certain sections of content he or she would like toshare with others. The user may then select a sample of that content forsharing (step 620). This may involve the use of a sampling applicationprogram native on the playback device, or the sampling application maybe supplied by the content provider or a third party software vendor.Other solutions include the use of certain other software such asWindows Media Player, Real Player or other player software that maysupport sampling or editing of content.

At step 620, selecting a desired excerpt of content with an appropriateapplication may involve digitally marking the section by inserting astart marker at the beginning of the desired excerpt and an end markerat the end of the excerpt (e.g., using a mouse to set the start and endmarkers on the playback bar that tracks the playback of the content).Once the desired section is identified, the user may select an “extract”or “excerpt” button which may copy that section of content to anotherfile (and possibly to a pre-designated excerpt directory) that the usermay name and prepare for sending to others.

In some embodiments, rather than requiring the use of start and endmarkers, the sampling application may allow the user to select apredefined sampling interval that a user can employ to select a sectionof content (e.g., 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc.) With thisapproach, a user may select the desired predefined sample interval andsuperimpose that interval on a playback bar of a player with the contentloaded (e.g., with a mouse). The superimposed portion defines thecontent to be copied for the sample. In other embodiments, the user mayselect a start point and the immediately following predefined sectionselected by the user (e.g., 30 second interval, etc.) defines thesample. Other methods are also possible, such as entering the start andend point (such as start and end time) into a sampling application froma counter that tracks the playback of content. If desired, at thispoint, the user may proceed directly to step 650 and send the excerpt.

Next, at step 630, however, the user may optionally review the selectedexcerpt or sample to ensure it is acceptable. If it is generallyacceptable, the user may proceed directly to step 650 and send theexcerpt or may proceed to step 640 and optionally edit the excerpt(discussed in more detail below). If the excerpt is not acceptable theuser may return to step 620 to select another one as described herein.This process may be repeated until an acceptable excerpt is obtained.

In the case were an acceptable excerpt is obtained, the user may wish tofurther edit or modify the excerpt at step 640. This may be done tocustomize, personalize or further explain or introduce the contentexcerpt selected. For example, at step 640 the user may record an audioor video introduction (or trailer) inserted or appended to the excerptwhich is played before (or after) the excerpt itself is played by therecipient. Such information may include the sender's audio or videocomments, explanation, introduction, or other relevant or relatedmaterials (such as other content or a link to other content). It mayalso allow the user to add audio to a video excerpt or vice versa. Themay be accomplished using a special editing application program or usingknown multimedia editing software.

After the excerpt has been edited the user may return to step 630 andreview the resulting excerpt (or just the changed sections) to ensure itis acceptable. The user may repeat steps 630 and 640 until an acceptablesample has been obtained.

Next, at step 650, the user may send the excerpt to one or more intendedrecipients. This may involve selecting one or more excerpts from adirectory of excerpts and attaching them to a text message or emailmessage for distribution to others. Upon sending the excerpt, the servermay attach or insert certain promotional or advertisement sections tothe excerpt. Moreover, the excerpt may be scanned to determine if thelength of the excerpt is beyond that permitted by the content provideror if the excerpt is eligible for retransmission. This may occur atdevices 115 and/or 120 or may occur at a transmission gateway such as anemail or text message gateway. Several additional optional steps mayalso occur. If the excerpt is in violation of these other criteria,transmission may be prohibited (by a transmission server or at thedevice level).

Moreover, it will be understood in some embodiments of the inventionthat content may be supplied with certain pre-made excerpts or samplesby the content provider. In this case, these excerpts may be browsed,selected and reviewed at steps 610, 620 and 630 and sent at step 650. Insome embodiments, the content provider may attach advertisements tothese excerpts. Some pre-made excerpts may also be edited and reviewedas described herein at steps 630 and 640.

In some embodiments, the sender sends the receiver a link at step 650,the link connects to the server storing the excerpt, and the server thendelivers the segment to the receiver. In other embodiments, the segmentis sent directly from sender to receiver. Certain embodiments of thepresent invention include mechanisms that prevent the user from sendingnumerous segments, such that substantially all of the title has beensent to the receiver.

The excerpt sharing feature described herein may be used to enhancecustomer reviews of services and content provided. For instance, a usermay provide a review in the form of commentary on the narrator'sperformance or ability, and provide a segment where the narrator wasparticularly engaging. Moreover, excerpts sent to others may include alink to a chat room or website where the recipient may read or postreviews on the content.

An embodiment of the present invention may also be designed to functionwith passive devices, i.e. those that are not able to initiate thesending or receiving of the segment. In such embodiments, a sharingfeature may be defined specifically for passive devices. A passivedevice may enable the user to mark segments of the content. Thecommunication between the passive device 120 and computing device 115may then include retrieving the segments of content that had been markedsince the previous connection.

Another aspect of the present invention employs the use of peer to peeror BitTorrent protocols to provide customized content files to a user.For example, FIG. 7 a generally illustrates a basic peer to peer network700 in accordance with the present invention, and FIG. 7 b generallyillustrates a basic BitTorrent network 750 in accordance with thepresent invention. As shown in FIG. 7 a, client 705, which may becomputing device 115 or portable device 120, may communicate with peercomputing devices 710 and 715, a content service 725 and a centraldirectory 720, each of which may be a remote, network connectedcomputer.

In operation, client 705 may request a customized content file, such asthose described herein, which may be defined as a collection of discretelogical components such as sections, chapters, advertisements,promotional material, etc. When client 705 requests a customized contentfile from content service 725, content service 725 returns aspecification for the customized content file (e.g., a list of logicalcomponents that define that customized content file). For example, sucha specification may be provided as a result of a customized enclosurerequest. For each logical component in the specification, client 705 maycontact central directory 720 to determine which peer computing devicehas the requested component. In other embodiments, the entire contentfile specification may be provided to central directory 720, which mayprovide a list of peers which have the requested information.

Based on the information provided by central directory 720, client 705chooses peers which have the components and requests delivery. Peercomputers 710 and 715 may provide some (or all) components, yet othercomponents may need to be provided by content service 725. Once client705 has received all (or a sufficient number of) components, itassembles the final customized content file. Client 705 may alsoregister with central directory 720 to inform it of the logicalcomponents it has, so that client 705 may now provide these componentsto other peers. Thus, with this approach, the components of therequested customized content file may be obtained from peers rather thanreceiving the complete file from content service 725. This allows suchfiles to be received faster and using fewer resources than if thecomplete customized file were transmitted from a single location.

Turning now to FIG. 7 b, a BitTorrent embodiment of the presentinvention is shown. In operation, client 705 may request a customizedcontent file, such as those described herein, which may be defined as acollection of discrete logical components such as sections, chapters,advertisements, promotional material, etc. When client 705 requests acustomized content file from content service 725, content service 725returns a specification for the customized content file (e.g., a list oflogical components that define that customized content file). Forexample, such a list may be provided as a result of customized enclosurerequest.

At this point, client 705 may request a torrent from torrent directory735 that represents a logical component of the customized content file.The torrent may be a small file that contains metadata about therequested component and includes information about trackers 730 or 732,which coordinate component distribution. Each logical component may beconstructed from multiple smaller pieces which may be fixed in size.Client 705 may download the torrent and connect to a specified trackerto determine which peers 710, 712, 715 and 717 have the pieces whichcumulatively form the requested logical component. Trackers 730 and 732may be contacted substantially serially (one after the other), or inparallel (substantially concurrently). Next, client 705 may contact theidentified peers to obtain the pieces necessary to construct therequested logical component. Once client 705 has received all (or asufficient number of) pieces, it assembles the logical component. Thisprocess may be repeated for each logical component in the customizedcontent file.

In some embodiments, client 705 may request a list of torrents fromtorrent directory 735 that represent the customized content file. Such alist of torrents may be referred to as a metatorrent. Client 705 maydownload the metatorrent and connect to one or more specified trackers,to determine which peers have the pieces that cumulatively form therequested logical components in customized content file. Next, client705 may contact the identified peers to obtain the pieces necessary toconstruct the customized content file. Once client 705 has received all(or a sufficient number of) pieces, it assembles the final customizedcontent file.

Client 705 may also register with the trackers to inform them whichlogical components it has, so that it may now offer to serve pieces ofthese components to other peers. Thus, with this approach, thecomponents of the requested customized content files as described hereinmay be obtained from peers rather than receiving the customized contentfile from content service 725.

A flow chart 800 illustrating some of the steps involved in providingcustomized content in a peer to peer environment is shown in FIG. 8. Atstep 805, client 705 may request and receive a customized content filespecification from a content source 725, expressed as a list of logicalcomponents which may be constructed as described herein. Next, at step810, for each logical component in the list, client 705 contacts centraldirectory 720 to determine which peers have the logical component.

At step 815, client 705 finds the specific peer that can deliver thecomponent. Next, at step 820, client 705 receives the component from theselected peers. The client 705 may repeat steps 815 and 820 until itreceives all or substantially all components. At step 825, the receivedcomponents may be assembled to create the requested customized contentfile. The client 705 may then register with central directory 720 as asupplying peer for each of the received components (step 830).

A flow chart 900 illustrating some of the steps involved in providingcustomized content in a metatorrent embodiment is shown in FIG. 9. Atstep 905, client 705 may request and receive a customized content filespecification from content service 725, expressed as a list of logicalcomponents which may be constructed as described herein. Next, at step907, client 705 contacts torrent directory 735 to receive a metatorrentwhich includes torrent files that specify the trackers. Client 705 thendownloads the metatorrent at step 910.

At step 912, client 705 contacts the tracker(s) specified by thetorrents contained in the metatorrent to determine which peers have thepieces required to assemble the logical component. At step 915 client705 contacts the peers which are able to supply pieces of the desiredcomponent. Next, at step 920, client 705 receives the pieces from theselected peers. At step 925, the received pieces may be assembled tocreate the requested customized content file directly or may be used toassemble logical components which are then combined to create thecustomized content file. And at step 930, client 705 may register withtorrent directory 735 as a supplying peer for each of the receivedcomponents.

While the invention has been described and illustrated in connectionwith preferred embodiments, many variations and modifications will beevident to those skilled in the art and may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, althoughcontent is described herein as being communicated from a server, suchcontent could also be transferred to computing device 115 and/orportable device 120 from a chip or other local memory device. This mayinclude obtaining a physical chip and connecting through a USB or othercommunications port for a download. Billing, customization, excerpts, orother features may be performed on this basis with the playback deviceconnecting to a network or Internet to perform some or all of thefeatures described herein.

The invention is thus not to be limited to the precise details ofmethodology or construction set forth above as such variations andmodification are intended to be included within the scope of theinvention.

1-26. (canceled)
 27. A computer-implemented method comprising: asimplemented by one or more computing devices configured with specificexecutable instructions, providing electronic content for playback by afirst user; enabling the first user to select a portion of theelectronic content to be shared with a second user, wherein the selectedportion is less than the entire electronic content; determining whethersharing of the selected portion is permitted by a content provider basedat least in part on a length of the selected portion; and based at leastin part on a determination that sharing of the selected portion ispermitted, enabling the second user to access the selected portion ofthe electronic content for playback.
 28. The computer-implemented methodof claim 27, wherein the electronic content comprises at least one ofaudio content or video content.
 29. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 27, wherein determining whether sharing of the selected portion ispermitted comprises determining whether a plurality of portions selectedfor sharing, when combined, can be used to substantially recreate atleast most of the electronic content.
 30. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 27, wherein enabling the second user to access theselected portion of the electronic content for playback comprises:causing the selected portion of the electronic content to be copied toan excerpt file; and causing the excerpt file to be sent electronicallyto at least one computing system accessible by the second user.
 31. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 30, further comprising enabling thefirst user to edit the excerpt file prior to sending the excerpt file.32. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein enabling thefirst user to select the portion of the electronic content to be sharedcomprises enabling the first user to select a start marker and an endmarker within the electronic content.
 33. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 27, wherein enabling the first user to select theportion of the electronic content to be shared comprises receiving anindication of a sampling interval selected by the first user.
 34. Asystem comprising: an electronic data store configured to at least storeelectronic content; and a computing system comprising one or morehardware computing devices, said computing system in communication withthe electronic data store and configured to at least: provide access tothe electronic content to a first user; enable the first user to selecta portion of the electronic content to be shared, wherein the selectedportion is less than the entire electronic content; determine whethersharing of the selected portion is permitted based at least in part on alength of the selected portion; and based at least in part on adetermination that sharing of the selected portion is permitted, enablea second user to access the selected portion of the electronic content.35. The system of claim 34, wherein the computing system is furtherconfigured to append additional content to the selected portion of theelectronic content prior to enabling the second user to access theselected portion.
 36. The system of claim 35, wherein the additionalcontent is advertising or promotional content.
 37. The system of claim34, wherein the electronic content comprises at least one of audiocontent or video content.
 38. The system of claim 34, whereindetermining whether sharing of the selected portion is permittedcomprises determining whether a plurality of portions selected forsharing, when combined, can be used to substantially recreate at leastmost of the electronic content.
 39. The system of claim 34, whereinenabling the first user to select the portion of the electronic contentto be shared comprises enabling the first user to select a start markerand an end marker within the electronic content
 40. A computer-readable,non-transitory storage medium storing computer executable instructionsthat, when executed by one or more computing devices, configure the oneor more computing devices to perform operations comprising: presentingelectronic content to a first user; enabling the first user to select aportion of the electronic content to be shared, wherein the selectedportion is less than the entire electronic content; determining whethersharing of the selected portion is permitted based at least in part on alength of the selected portion; and based at least in part on adetermination that sharing of the selected portion is permitted,enabling a second user to access the selected portion of the electroniccontent.
 41. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium ofclaim 40, wherein the operations further comprise appending additionalcontent to the selected portion of the electronic content prior toenabling the second user to access the selected portion.
 42. Thecomputer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 41, whereinthe additional content is advertising or promotional content.
 43. Thecomputer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 41, whereinthe electronic content comprises video content.
 44. Thecomputer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 40, whereinenabling the first user to select the portion of the electronic contentto be shared comprises enabling the first user to select a start markerand an end marker within the electronic content.
 45. Thecomputer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 40, whereindetermining whether sharing of the selected portion is permittedcomprises determining whether a plurality of portions selected forsharing, when combined, can be used to substantially recreate at leastmost of the electronic content.
 46. The computer-readable,non-transitory storage medium of claim 40, wherein enabling the seconduser to access the selected portion of the electronic content forplayback comprises copying the selected portion of the electroniccontent to an excerpt file.